Twice Undying
For millennia, Azurel and Raiden traveled the cosmos, separately and together. As they explored world after world, Raiden frequently found himself swept up in mortal affairs and Azurel would have to find some way to mitigate the damage he had done to a society. Story After millennia of searching the unending cosmos, sifting through lifeforms from the smallest microorganism to the largest beast, traveling from planet to planet searching for equality; searching for companionship, at last the two immortals had met. Raiden and Azurel had both existed alone for far too long. The prophetic angel Azurel was able to see that Raiden's isolation and overwhelming knowledge through ages of experience had rotted away his morality. Over the past centuries, Raiden had left in his wake a trail of destruction and sadness inspired by his need to correct the minor flaws of the civilizations he had encountered. In contrast to Azurel's beneficent and trustful nature, Raiden was more akin to a demon seeking his own ends by any means. Raiden's corruption was nigh unexplainable, but Azurel knew that he could be saved. Azurel's ability to reprogram the minds of others had aided in multiple past instances where lives could be saved by altering the perspectives of corrupted individuals who were nearing tragedy either through tyranny or execution. Azurel now used this ability to give Raiden something he never imagined possible: a second life; a life in which he would be freed of the burden of his instinct to see the worst in people while retaining the unimaginable stores of knowledge he'd acquired. Life Among Mortals Unfortunately, this did not result in a peaceful life. They'd been living amongst the populace of an underdeveloped world when Azurel was spied manipulating the mind of a criminal. The spy, a covert agent for an already paranoid government, delivered to his superiors a report colored by his own bias. Azurel was soon captured and locked away as they deemed the unpredictable influence and untold powers Azurel possessed to be a threat to their society or at least the ruling class. After all, "Status quo is God." Eventually, though he had been devoting his time to a mortal, Raiden came to realize he had not heard from Azurel. He then spent years anxiously searching the world over. What he learned once again corrupted the innocence which Azurel had granted him. He was shocked and confused. Confusion turned to anger. His indignation led him down a path of vindictive intent. He would find the prophetic angel. After all, Azurel was immortal. Raiden would stop at nothing to wrest his old friend out from under the grip of this society's tyranny. Meanwhile, the world would know his wrath. It wasn't long before he had ascended to power. Fifteen years of marketing himself to the masses to buy their support; soaking in their praise as he rose to stand as the head of nations. He had originally planned to use his power to find his old friend but there were constant interruptions. Wars threatening to plague his territories. Constant complaints from his citizens. Raiden felt the people, his country's enemies, the requests, complaints, wars, and the money were all meaningless distractions he was forced to observe and resolve lest his influence dissolve amid the growing horde of on-setting problems. Though they were mere obstacles he wished to be rid of, he could not risk permitting the existence of anything that would threaten his search. Normally, this country's leader would have been replaced in a few years, but his supernatural ability to charm the masses allowed him to remain in power. Years passed with Raiden repeating his days activities, never finding a moment's rest to piece together the location of the prophet. Eventually, beleaguered by the responsibilities he had allowed to consume his life, he forgot his endgame altogether and once again set out to conquer a civilization's evils. One day, an anonymous voice spoke out from among the crowd. A cybernetically interconnected wizard protesting online the latest atrocities which had stricken the country during Raiden's reign and the unending wars his leadership had herded them into. Thurian Q the Cyber Vigilante/Internet Hero struggled to break free the minds of his peers from the shackles of Raiden's hypnotic influence. He was the grandson of the spy whose report had resulted in the capture of the strangely gifted Azurel. He also seemed to be the only one to really notice that, in the many years of his reign, Raiden had not aged. Infinite Duet Years after his spherical prison crash-landed on the planet Anvar, Raiden's consciousness has been fragmented into several corporeal forms. These include natives, Pilgrims, and other creatures. However, his true body ha since been locked away in the Dark Pillar. Meanwhile, in a time of roiling unrest between Lunaria and Solaris, Prince Dalyn arranges the kidnaping of Aeron Albernith's fiancée with help from the assassin Xenon. Utilizing Aeon Digeros's experiments, he had created an army of actual monsters. Now, as Aeron adventures beside the roguish Lazarus Cartelan, the dark shadows slowly draw away to reveal darker intentions.